Confessions of an X-Wing Cheat

Hello and welcome,

After hijacking Dylan’s blog for the last few months, I’ve decided to take the plunge and write my own (hopefully weekly) blog.

So why ‘an X-Wing cheat’? Well, if you’ve ever played me, you’ll know I more often than not misread/don’t read or forget something during a game. It’s not that I’m trying to be underhanded, it’s just that I’m……………well, BAD!

But hopefully you can enjoy reading about me going to various events and doing something silly.

This week we are off to the recent Mando’s event in Newport Pagnell (and yes, I cheat…….twice!!) and next week you can read about my opening game of the XTC. It’s a nice easy game against……….. the current WORLD CHAMPION!!

Always three there are

It’s 7am on Saturday morning and myself, Mark Packer-Hughes and Dad are off to the Mando’s Autumn Squad Championship run by Alan Barlow at Newport Pagnell (home of Aston Martin no less, bit posh). Dad of course is the legend, Richard Greenaway.

Now 7am may seem early but it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive. Mark bless him came up from Taunton and left at 5am, picking Richard up on the way.

This much traveling just shows what a great event Alan puts on, and this one didn’t disappoint, great venue, well run, great prize support and amazing opponents.

So what am I running today I hear you ask?

Well Dylan asked me to play for team Wales again this year in the XTC which is a huge honour but I’ve not played since WTC and then gone on holiday for a few weeks in Croatia (highly recommend).

Points have changed so I rebuild my list, Ric is gone and Obi called up as a replacement, and I’ll use Mando’s to get four much needed practice games in.

The two Arc’s are the same and give a tanky punch to the list. Ani feels like a flanker. Obi can run with the Arc’s or flank. Looking at how people like Illy ran their Jedi I’ve also gone with the regen droids. So let’s see how it goes.

Game One V’s Marc Rider

Now I’ve known Marc for a long time and he’s a genuinely lovely human being but when I read his list I did wonder if I’d made a mistake and that he’s actually pure evil.

Three Kimogila’s with ‘dead to rights’ (defence dice can’t be modified if in bullseye) and proton rockets with Drea giving re-rolls if you’re in its arc. Oh, and two tie fighters.

Well, my Arc’s only have one defensive dice which they really do like to modify. Being chunky it’s not going to be hard for Marc to get a bullseye on them.

So, stay away from the Kimogila’s, kill Drea asap.

We are playing Assault, I have two medium base ships so I generally like this scenario, but Marc has three. However, with the Drea re-rolls he’ll need to keep his ships together, so I try to place the rocks in a way that limits his lanes onto the objectives. I’m also lucky that he sets up his whole list before me and I can react.

Ani set’s up opposite Marc’s list. If I can get him to break up his formation, it’ll make things easier. The Arc’s and Obi set up on the left.

The Arc’s will slow roll and Obi will go hunting the Tie’s and try to get in behind Drea.

Ani gets scared by the wall of death approaching and moves to the middle to force Marc to either turn in for the middle giving Ani the chance to turn back to the right and flank or to keep going forward.

Wolffe has Aayla crew who can co-ordinate, so I give Obi a focus and the two Arc’s move up grabbing an objective. Obi races forward and takes a lock on the Tie at range one and rolls three hits and a crit while the Tie rolls three blanks and explodes.

I’m surprised but very happy and turn two ends with me ahead on 7-2 as we tied on objectives.

Going into turn 3 both Marc and I are both looking at the red Kimogila and the rock and if it can make a hard two turn. We come to different conclusions, I think no and base my decision with Oddball on that, but Mark thinks it can and is correct by 2-3mm.

I’d decided I’d be taking 1-2 shots and went for the middle objective, sadly oddball got shot by all three Kimogila’s. He didn’t get halved but was sad. Obi also couldn’t contest the top left objective, so Marc picked up 4 points to my 2.

Sadly, I didn’t take a picture of turn 4 but Oddball did a hard two left to get away but still got halved, I halved the remaining Tie and Marc again out scored me on objectives and we finished the round 15-13 to Marc

Going into turn 5 Ani was now able to come in and was hunting Drea, Oddball k-turned to get his 3 dice gun into the fight, Obi went to finish the Tie while Wollfe secured the objective and hoped to get a shot but was just out.

I managed to get half points on a Kimogila and killed the Tie BUT I’d forgotten the Proton Rockets and Wolffe paid the price being instantly halved.

Now here comes my first ( yes there was a second) instance of cheating. I don’t think it effected the game and I told Marc after the game when I realised. I converted my defence dice against the Procket shot!! Bad Steve. I was ahead 25-23 but both Arc’s are halved.  

Turn six and seven are really tight and looking back I think I should have turned the Arc’s into the Kimogila’s to start putting damage in and let the Jedi clean up. As it was by the end of turn six both Arc’s are gone and one Kimogila is gone and red is halved and it’s 39-35 to Marc.

Going into turn seven Obi needs to kill red but will red turn left or right? In the end I decide to one bank Obi so I’ll still have a shot into Drea. When Marc goes right with red I’m not sure I have a shot, I also can’t leave my objective. Ani is blocked. Much thinking is done; Marc is sweating on the other side of the table as I put everything into red who………. Lives, just.

Marc is the deserved winner 41-37.

Conclusion. The Arc’s didn’t add much fire power this game. When the Kimogila’s took sustained fire they died just like my arc’s do. If I’d chucked them in the middle they still would have died but maybe I kill another Kimogila or Drea.

Great game but mistakes made, onto game two against Mr Kryptonite and the biggest mistake I’ve made in a while lol.

Game two v’s Joaquin Gonzalez (Mr Kryptonite)

I love Joaquin but it feels like whenever we play, he’s always one step ahead of me. We played at the last Mando’s event, and it was a great game but even after a strong start I couldn’t win the attrition race and Joaquin took me apart.

So, I knew I had to be aggressive and get the early kills in.

I’m not sure if Joaquin had to change his list much with the points change but the ships are the same. The Viper’s are really nasty with boost/barrel roll focus, and the barrel roll is bendy.

We are playing Chance Engagement so it’s going to be a slugfest in the middle. I do my standard deployment. Turn one Joaquin comes down my left flank with the Tie heading for the middle. Is Obi going Tie hunting again?

Turn two and three decide the game. I know Ani will take shots, but I turn in and when Joaquin brings two Vipers into the middle I boost focus into bullseye. Between Ani and the Arc’s, the Viper explodes. Obi has got a juicy range one shot into another Tie fighter and murders it. I’m 17 points up and Joaquin has lost two of his five ships. He does half Ani but says “I think you’ve won, I can’t afford to lose that many ships so early”.

Oh how turn three changes everything. Obi will hard one right to join the fight. The Arc’s will trundle forward to engage the two ships coming down the board edge and Ani will three forward and regen. Great plan………. but

In my head a little voice said “why don’t you co-ordinate Ani a boost to the right from Aayla, then he can hard two right around the rock and be behind Joaquin’s squad and still regen. A better plan, let’s do it, what could go wrong.

Well, I could dial in a two forward on Wolffe so he jumps Oddball and Aayla co-ordinate’s Ani and then find Wolffe doesn’t make it and bumps Oddball so then Ani does a hard two onto the rock and dies but that’ll never happen!!

Joaquin is back in the game, and it’s gone from 19-8 to me to 23-21 to him. Ani is dead and Oddball is halved. Oh Steve!!

There’s not a lot to take from the rest of the game as Joaquin expertly blocked my Arc’s and Obi. With dead mans switch it starts to limit your shots as you don’t want your burning ships taking unnecessary damage.

Joaquin won 56-45 in turn seven

Conclusion: Would Joaquin still have won if I hadn’t murdered Ani with a big blunt rock? Maybe but I think this is a win I gave away by trying to be clever. I’m now 0&2, not going great is it, so lunch and restart. Surly it will get better, oh wait, there’s the second cheating event to come.

Game Three v’s Solis22

This is my first time playing Solis and he turns out to be a fun friendly opponent but is fairly new to X-Wing. It’s great to see new players. But this leads to the second cheating moment as you’ll see later.

His list is nasty with double Plasma, he’ll rip my Arc’s apart.

We are playing Ancient Knowledge, so I don’t have to try to force my Arc’s across the table to claim objectives. I’ll try to make him come to me.

I forgot to take a picture of Turn Zero but Ani was in standard ‘don’t ignore me mode’ while Obi went off fast. Solis staggered his deployment and came after me aggressively.

As you can see in turn three I was able to pick on one X-Wing with three of my ships. I was ahead 16-4. We spoke after the game, and I said if he’d kept his squad together I couldn’t have just picked on one ship at a time.

By turn seven I was 44-11 up and Solis was looking despondent. I was 0&2 going in so I’m not making the top places so rather than just disengaging with my Jedi and running the clock I jousted Solis’s list.

I thought I had enough of a lead to win but let him do some damage. It ended 52-40 with a happier Solis and a slightly worried Steve lol. But it did show him what his list is capable of.

A win, if I can grab the last game, I’ll go 2&2. I’ve had great fun and getting a feel for my tweaked list. A nice easy fourth game, yes please, on we go

Oh wait, you want to know about the second cheating moment. Well, the eagle eyed amongst you may have already spotted it.

If you look at the picture of turn two you’ll notice a rock on the edge of the mat lol. We had started turn three when I noticed it. It was Solis’s rock to place but it’s both players responsibility so I take equal blame for forgetting to place it. We called Alan (TO) over and in the end he popped it in the bottom right corner. It didn’t affect the game at all and it was just a funny game event.

Game Four v’s Mr Steve Theobald

Now I love Steve but I was promised an easy fourth game.

We are playing Boxes. Steve has a habit of coming up with horrible lists. Moralo is going to fly off the table and then come back behind me. Sol can deploy at range zero of a rock. Nym has a horrible double tap but the interesting thing is the Y-Wing with an Electro-Proton Bomb. I’ve seen Peter Lake use these to devastating effect, but I have a secret weapon……R2-D2, he can remove devices.

I’m hoping Steve doesn’t realise this. I’m going to run forward with Ani, remove the bomb and murder a Y-Wing.

Steve deploys Sol on the middle rock and the Y-Wing with a lane to the middle so I’m expecting a drop from Sol and the Y-Wing to come forward. I change my deployment and Ani joins his squad mates on the right.

Turn one Ani races forward and the Y-Wing turns away! Wait, come back, I want to kill you!! Obi also shoots forward and Moralo fly’s off the table never to be seen again (I wish). I remove the annoying Ion bomb with R2-D2 and Moralo comes back to play.

Moralo comes back on my left corner. I didn’t want him behind me so turned the Arc’s towards him. I decide to commit everything to killing him so turn my Jedi back onto him.

Rudely in turn three Steve fly’s him off the table again, at least that’s the last time he can do that. It’s been a very tight game up to turn three with no ship damage and we are tied at 8 points each going into turn four.

It’s a great move by Steve deploying Moralo in the middle as my Arc’s sail by but Obi gets a nice range one shot and with the damage Moralo took the turn before he’s halved and I get seven points, I’m suddenly ahead 17-10 and Obi is behind Moralo. The Arc’s are out of the game but I can bring them back in. Ani is getting chased by Sol and Nym and honestly, I’m not sure what to do with him.

Turn Four and I should have gone straight with Ani, the three bank bumps Nym but at least I’m not getting double tapped. Moralo does a hard stop and Obi bumps into him but has range on the Y-Wing and between him and an Arc I get 4 points for halving it.

I’m up 23-14 and I think if you’d talked to either of us, you’d have come away thinking the game was mine.

But Steve’s a fighter and a great player so he devises a win condition and I…..forget to think about my opponents win condition (sadly I did this at WTC and swore I would change my thinking as it cost me two games)

Even though rounds 6&7 are the last two rounds of the last game I’m struggling to remember the exact position, but the important bit is Steve hard stopped Moralo again so Obi bumped but more importantly couldn’t kill him. It also gave Nym a double tap into Obi. Ani couldn’t kill Nym

If I killed the Y-Wing and Moralo I won (I believe) but it rolled an evade and was then able to kill Wolffe.

Conclusion: The game swung from 23-14 to me to 37-25 for Steve. It was a fantastic game, and Steve is always a pleasure to play against. He finished 6^th on 2&2. Sadly, I think it’s another win I managed to turn into a loss, it could have been me in 6^th place

Event Conclusion

A fantastic day, I genuinely enjoyed every game playing against some outstanding opponents.

Is the list ok?

Yes, I think it’s solid. I can’t blame the ships or upgrades for what happened.

Pilot error. Well yes but not the normal “I forgot ‘x’ trigger because it’s a new list”, no, I didn’t ask the right questions.

What’s my opponents win condition?

What’s my opponents best move?

I don’t think (others may disagree) I got out played particularly, I was ahead in all four games and two of them I was in a strong position. You never know, but if I’d played better, I could have been 3&1 rather than 1&3.

I’m happy with the list. I’m flying to Belfast on Friday to play in the Tauntaun Open event so that’ll be more practice. I have my game tonight against the World Champion Tony, so by week two of XTC I’ll have nine games under my belt and hopefully I can start to get some wins for team Wales.

Thanks for reading my blog, I’ll see you next week.

Pew Pew, StevieB